The AN−148 feels itself confident in operation

The AN−148 was delivered to a new operator. The AN−148EA VIP version had been passed to a Special flight squad of the executive office of President of Russian Federation.

This aircraft became the fifteenth airliner of the AN−148 family, which had entered the air routes. Fourteen of such airplanes have already been working in four airlines of Russia and Ukraine. They have mastered about 70 domestic routes of those countries. The AN−148−s carry out the international flights as well. Geography of their flights includes about 40 countries of the world. Month flying time of several AN−148s exceeded 400 hours, average for the fleet reached 320 hours per airplane. More than 1.5 mln persons became passengers of the AN−148.

The AN−148−100E with flight range extended to 4400 km have proved themselves well on routes of Angara airline. Three such airplanes of this Irkutsk airline have been performing regular flights since the 20th of December 2012. The first flight of the AN−148−100E was performed on route of Irkutsk−Novosibirsk – Mirny – Novosibirsk − Irkutsk. After that, the AN−148−100Es of this operator performed more than 70 flights. Airline informs that average duration of a flight is 2 hours. Thus, one aircraft flew already about 30 hours. In the nearest time, according to the winter schedule, it is planned to operate the AN−148−100Es on routes of Novosibirsk−Blagoveshchensk, Novosibirsk−Mirny, Irkutsk−Novosibirsk, Irkutsk−Yakutsk. When summer schedule starts, geography of flights of the AN−148−100E will be expanded significantly, says press−service of the airlines.

“The AN−148−100E means new possibilities of development of our region. This aircraft will be able to work from all our airports, land on unpaved and snowy runways”, − noted S.V.Yeroshenko, the governor of Irkutsk district.

Rossiya airline is still the biggest operator of the AN−148. It has six such airplanes. Two AN−148s perform flights in Polyot airline, three ones – in UIA (Ukraine).